1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to facilitating communication between various users in networked or disparate systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to enabling a user to transmit textual or graphical information to one or more users based upon descriptive attributes associated with each user.
2. The Relevant Technology
Efficiently communicating information and knowledge has been a continual challenge and pursuit of individuals and business alike. As a result, advances in technology in recent years have led to improved communications systems and created new ways of transmitting information. One such communications system is the Internet. Through the Internet, physically isolated individuals and businesses can share information and communicate through various means, including web pages, email, chat rooms, and the like.
In addition to the Internet, many organizations and businesses develop an intranet or network to share information and knowledge between the members of the organization or business. Typically, such intranets are based upon TCP/IP protocols, as is the Internet, and are accessible only to authorized employees or individuals associated with the particular organization or business. These intranets can display information and knowledge as web pages and can use uniform resource locators (URLs) to identify the location of such web pages within the intranet.
One type of organization that can use an intranet to share information is a community information network, such as a university or similar institution. A university's intranet typically connects the various buildings and departments and facilitates communication between students, faculty, alumni, and university administration. Because of the size and diverse nature of a university, each student, faculty member, alumnus, administrator, department, employee, or other person affiliated with the university has a broad series of relations with other students, faculty members, etc. that are also associated with the university. Typically, each such individual or department communicates on a regular basis with other individuals or departments associated with the university.
Often, individuals affiliated with the university, such as faculty members and administrators, need to communicate identical information to various individuals in a particular group that shares certain characteristics. For example, a professor may wish to send a message to his or her students regarding a class cancellation or a housing administrator may wish to send a message to all dormitory residents informing them of an upcoming activity. Typical current methods of communicating such information consist of flyers, bulletins, central home pages, and group email messages where each email address is manually entered. However, such methods do not enable a user to quickly isolate the particular individuals they wish to receive the message.
Further, despite the typical extent of an individual's associations with a university, they are not in constant contact with the university or university systems. For example, students may live off campus and have Internet access that is unaffiliated with the university. In fact, they often leave the area for holidays, internships, or study abroad programs. Accordingly, there is also a need for methods and systems to enable efficient communication between university affiliated individuals when they are off-campus and do not access central university web pages.
Accordingly, there is a continuing need for methods and systems to overcome or avoid the above problems and limitations and enable persons in a community information network to efficiently communicate with other persons affiliated with the network.